Alleged ISIS gunmen seize radio station in Libya

Gunmen claiming to be members of ISIS have seized control of a state-run radio station in Libya’s coastal city of Sirte, residents said Friday, AFP reported.

Jihadi websites also posted pictures showing armed men sitting in front of microphones in a broadcasting studio and brandishing Kalashnikov assault rifles.

“They took Radio Sirte yesterday [Thursday]. Since then they have been broadcasting [verses from] the Quran and speeches by [ISIS chief Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi,” a city resident told AFP by telephone.

The resident said speeches of ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani were also being played on air.

A former local administration official said the gunmen have set up a headquarters in the center of the city, and voiced concern that they could declare an Islamic emirate in Sirte.

“They could take advantage of the absence of any central government authority to transform the city into an Islamic emirate as they did in Derna,” an eastern city held by jihadi groups including ISIS.

The man, who declined to be named, said the gunmen apparently seized the radio “as a first step to communicate with the population.”

“The situation in Sirte is very complex,” he said, because many radical groups have a foothold there.